In iGaming Business this month there is an article about whether the online gaming market has reached saturation point and all three “experts” vote no – Dr. Les Golden had some great points –
“Far more than half the population of the world in under developed nations remain unwired. These individuals represent a vast future constituency for internet gambling”
He also believes the statutory restriction of internet gambling in teh US, South Korea and other nations exists because there isn’t technology there to suffciently allow the collection of taxes. He says once that occurs these markets will also become huge (again)
Other opportunities he says include:
The inclusion of games from other cultures and/or the development of specific games for the internet.
Opportuniteis in in areas that don’t have credit card technology so our largely untouched by iGaming at the moment.
I also liked Rick Theobold’s points – He reckoned there is massive opportunites:
If you were offering “min spec” access to dial up customers in developed countries – He said two thirds of portugal are still on dial up!!!
Tagetting the older generation – He said PC sales are now really high in the 40+ generation which bodes will for iGaming particulary because they have a much higher disposable income
Designing sites for specific markets not simply translating them. I actually know someone who id doing just this with a Spanish bingo site – rather than simply translate the product and do it the easy way – They have hired everyone in Spain, worked the graphics, language, look, feel etc for the Spanish people even hired Spanish customer service perople as opposed to simply getting Spanish speakers in Costa Rica
Anyway – I go on – What I meant to say is we have only scratched the surface of online gambling!!! Only 40% of the 6.6 billion people in the world have internet access and teh % of those that are gambling online is probably ridiculously low which means there is still loads of $$$$$$$$$ out there